The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Luciana Santos, said this Thursday (30th), at Unicamp, that universities will play a fundamental role in the country's science and technology and innovation policy. The minister guaranteed that the ministry is ready to encourage research. “What is certain is that science has returned to Brazil, and we are now able to encourage research and technological development”, she said.
In the morning, Luciana Santos participated in the inauguration of the new superintendent of the Hospital da Mulher Prof. doctor José Aristodemo Pinotti – Caism, Professor João Renato Bennini Jr, who replaced Professor Luís Otávio Zanatta Sarian. Afterwards, she visited Hub Viva Bem, an artificial intelligence laboratory set up at the Institute of Computing (IC) with funding from the company Samsung. In the afternoon, the minister visited the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), responsible for operating Sirius, the largest and most complex scientific infrastructure ever built in the country, being one of the most advanced sources of synchrotron light in the world.
Santos said she is working on implementing structural projects that, according to her, are strategic for modernizing research infrastructure in Brazil. Among these projects is the strengthening of an industrial complex in the vicinity of health care.
“We believe that Brazil meets the conditions to become an international hub for the production of API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) to reduce the degree of dependence that Brazil and the whole world have today on China and India,” she said. “We are able to produce IFA, we have already produced and we should start producing again. That will be one of the contemporary tasks of our ministry,” she said. “And, in this sense, the partnership with the universities is fundamental, which today are responsible for 90% of the scientific production in the country”, argues the minister.
For the minister, the structure of the ministry already allows interaction with the academy. According to her, the National Fund for the Development of Science and Technology launches public notices for the ministry's strategic lines, among them, projects linked to nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy transition, climate change and the industrial health complex. “All of these areas are within the priority scope of our Ministry for the National Fund to finance”, she says.
“Another mechanism (of interaction with academia) is through the Information Technology Law, as is the case with this hub here at Unicamp, Viva Bem, and sometimes even discretionary resources with specific issues, such as technology parks. Therefore, there is a large mosaic of possibilities”, he said.
“With each investment we make in research and development, we expand the population's access to the benefits of science and technology; We improve the quality of life of Brazilians, transform knowledge into wealth and promote the country's growth, creating employment and income opportunities”. finished the minister.
Expand interactions
Unicamp's rector, professor Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, said he was excited with the minister's willingness to expand interactions with universities.
“When we hear from authorities of the federal government, or of the state government, the availability of health care to generate an industrialization complex, I feel an enormous joy to see that we can have a different future”, said the dean. “When we discover that there is no IFA, that vaccines or respirators are not manufactured, this is the result of a policy that needs to be reversed. And, today, we have the opportunity to do just that”, says Meirelles.
“Brazil was the country that grew the most in the world between World War II and the 1970s, but it grew without inclusion. Today, we have the possibility of making a policy of growth, but in a different way. And there is nothing more inclusive than public health care, made possible by the Unified Health System (SUS) ”, she concluded.
Originally published on Unicamp website
